Bahrain

Prohibited, no market

Betting and games of chance are prohibited under the Penal Code, and police regularly arrest people for running or joining games. There are no casinos, no lottery and no licensing authority.

Online casino
ProhibitedProhibited in every form: no licensing, no regulator, no lottery.
Regulator
NoneNo authority licenses iGaming
Legal basis
Not yet establishedResearch queued
Research coverage
55% 6 of 11 applicable fields. How it is scored

Legal status by product

Baseline research contract v1.1
ProductFindingStateSource
Online casino Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Sports betting Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Online poker Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Lottery Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Land-based casino Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)

Enforcement and controls

How the prohibition is applied
ControlFindingStateSource
Player liability Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Site blocking Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Payment blocking Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Advertising Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None

Offshore exposure

Knowledge base, as of 2026-10-15

With no licensed market to measure, the measurable activity is offshore: which brands say they accept players from Bahrain, and which offers are marked as available there.

Brand access declarations for Bahrain, of 1,721 brands tracked
  • Accept players from Bahrain55432.2%
  • Exclude Bahrain in their terms40023.2%
  • No declaration76744.6%
List Bahrain as a focus market31brands
Offers marked available8welcome offers
Population1.6MBahraini Dinar
Brands that accept players from Bahrain Licence status, access terms and offer history per brand

The brand list, licences and how access terms changed over time are in the enterprise dataset.

What would change this page
  • A draft law or public consultation on licensing any form of betting or games of chance
  • A new authority with powers over betting, lotteries or games of chance
  • Published blocking orders or payment restrictions aimed at offshore sites
  • A change in brand access declarations of more than 5% in a month
Latest on Bahrain

No news about Bahrain yet.

All news

Other markets with no licensed industry

All restricted markets
MarketRegionAccept playersExcludeFocus marketOffers
Bahrain Asia 554 32.2% 400 31 8
Afghanistan Asia 268 15.6% 801 3 0
Brunei Asia 555 32.2% 384 4 0
Indonesia Asia 531 30.9% 425 22 20
Iran Asia 246 14.3% 833 3 0
Kuwait Asia 548 31.8% 403 40 10
Mongolia Asia 520 30.2% 426 2 1
Not legal advice

This describes the law and its evidence. It does not tell anyone what they may do.

No commercial content

No operators are listed or promoted for Bahrain. Exposure data is published for research and compliance.

Gaps stay visible

Unknown and conflicting items stay on the page until a primary source resolves them.

Sources

  1. Gulf News: 32 expatriates arrested in Bahrain for gamblinggulfnews.com
  2. Daily Tribune: Bahrain police arrest 20 for running illegal gambling ringnewsofbahrain.com
Identifier
CR-JUR-BH
Research depth
Baseline
Desk research
Oct 2026
Knowledge base snapshot
2026-10-15
Sources
2 cited, medium confidence

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